KLM is offering three Brits with authentic Welsh, Scottish and North East accents the possibility of being the voice for their latest advertising campaign ‘Fly It Home,’ and have their accent projected across local airwaves for all to hear. Not only will winners have the possibility of their voice being featured in the radio campaign, they’ll also win a pair of return flights to any KLM destination around the world with a transfer in Amsterdam.
Hopefuls can enter the competition here. There are also six runners up prizes for grabs. Think you have the voice that can represent your area? All you have to do to enter is let your true local voice shine and record the pre-written script within 30 seconds and upload the voice message along with your details on www.promoentries.com/klmlocalvoices2023.
Over a quarter of Brits claim to have changed their accent at some point, research conducted on behalf of KLM has uncovered.
Despite a tendency to ‘accent catfish’ in some situations, almost half of Brits said their accent is important to how they identify with their background and culture, with 54% saying it makes them proud of their hometown.
When it comes to those who proudly stand by their accent in any scenario, Scousers and Scots are least likely to temper their drawls for anyone (79% and 70% respectively). On the flipside, people from Essex are most likely to tone down their accent to avoid embarrassment.
The research was conducted to shine a spotlight on these smaller regional communities and has been bought to life through KLM's ‘Fly It Home’ campaign and competition.
Dominic Watt, Visiting Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Vechta, has joined the campaign to shed light on the impact of local pronunciations, words and grammar on culture and identity: “The accent landscape in the UK is enormously rich for a relatively small geographical area, and research indicates that new variations of regional accents are continuing to emerge.”
“For too long, British people have been told that their regional accents are an obstacle to communication or to success in their working or personal lives, rather than something they can celebrate. The research shows, however, that people don't feel proud of their accents if they don't hear them represented in the media and pop culture. 20% of people from the West Country or Birmingham can’t think of a celebrity that sounds like them, reinforcing the idea that there's something wrong with the way they speak.”
Dominic adds: “Despite predictions of a decline, regional accents are still in pretty good health. They will continue to evolve and expand, in keeping with the rich and dynamic sense of identity that helps to preserve the UK's exciting cultural heritage. KLM's campaign is a timely reminder of how much we have to celebrate about the language varieties spoken across the UK.”
